Warne impressed with Clarke’s courage

Sydney, March 2: Spin wizard Shane Warne was proud with the way Australian captain Michael Clarke showed his toughness while batting on the first day of the Cape Town Test against South Africa when the batsman took several blows on his body from pacer Morne Morkel.

Clark was peppered with a barrage of bouncers by Morkel during his gutsy 92 and was left with bruises on the arm, body and jaw at the Newlands Stadium. It was Clarke’s first score over 24 since his century against England during the second Test in Adelaide last December.

Warne, who is with the Australian team as a consultant in South Africa, said he was proud of Clarke.

“I think he’s got four, maybe five ice packs. He’ll be stiff and sore tonight and he’ll be drinking chocolate milkshakes because his jaw’s a bit sore too,” Warne was quoted as saying in the Australian daily The Courier Mail.

“He’s in a bit of pain, a bit of agony. If you cop four or five blows like that it’s not going to tickle, it’s going to hurt at 150km/h. I’m very proud of Michael today. We’re best buddies and it’s very nice to see him show that courage,” he said.

Warne was impressed with Clarke’s mental toughness and the way he showed his courage in getting the runs.

“There’s been a bit of talk about him not making runs so it would have been easy for him at that stage, when you’re eyes are spinning and you’re getting hit, to actually try and say I’m going to hit my way out of this and take them on.

“But he went the other way and said you’re not getting me out. He hung in there and stayed in there and that showed a lot of courage. At the end of the day we saw him start to play really well like we know he can. Now he’s on 90 odd, hopefully he can go on and get a big one tomorrow,” he said.